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Councilman reverses course on controversial Eastwick development
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Councilman reverses course on controversial Eastwick development
Humility isn't a trait you expect to see much of on City Council, but last night 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson was issuing mea culpas left and right as he told the Eastwick Friends & Neighbors Coalition that he would not be moving forward with legislation to clear the way for more than 100 undeveloped acres in the area to be divvied up between the airport and Korman, which wants to build 722 apartments. "I learned some things form this process, and I'm not arrogant enough to say I didn't," Johnson told the group at Pepper Middle School. The administration and Korman "kind of just assumed the Councilman was going to rubber stamp the process," he said. Now, the proposal is liable to end up back in court instead.
Eastwick residents had protested the legislation clearing the way for the development, arguing that building on the now-open space was likely to exacerbate the frequent flooding experienced throughout the neighborhood during periods of heavy rain. Though this has been an issue since 1999 at least — and although there were at one point plans afoot to buy out some of the residents on the hardest-hit blocks — Joanne Dahme of the Water Department told residents that the PWD "became aware of the flooding" due to their efforts over the past year. She said the department was now committed to dealing with the issue, working with the Army Corps of Engineers to deal with the Cobbs and Darby creeks overflowing their banks, and with the Environmental Protection Agency, which is planning a cleanup of the Clearview Landfill, a Superfund site in the area. The Water Department conducted a study and found part of the flooding was due to creeks overflowing, and part was due to storm drains being overwhelmed and backing up.
An Army Corps of Engineers study will be complete by next fall, Dahme said, at which point potential remediations could be investigated.
That wasn't a satisfying answer to resident Howard Jordan, who said, "it seems like every time you finish a survey," not much happens. "Here we go surveying again." Thomas Casey, 71, agreed: "What I'm hearing is, we're going to do a long-term study — not, what's going to be done now."
Earl Wilson, another neighborhood resident, said that in the meantime, his flood insurance has climbed from around $300 a year to nearly $4,000. "Something," he said, "has got to be done."
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